Conga CPQ Overview

Conga CPQ (formerly Apttus CPQ) is a leading configure, price, quote (CPQ) solution designed to streamline and automate the sales processes of B2B companies across various industries, including technology, manufacturing, and services. Integrating product configuration, pricing, and quoting into a single platform enables sales teams to generate accurate quotes and ensure consistency in pricing strategies, even while managing a complex product catalog.

One of Conga CPQ’s standout features is its guided configuration, which helps sales representatives select the perfect product combination tailored to each customer’s needs, while promoting upselling and cross-selling opportunities. Its unified commerce experience ensures consistent pricing and configuration rules across all direct, partner, and online sales channels.

It also offers robust subscription management capabilities. It automates renewals and adjustments to boost customer lifetime value. These features collectively empower sales teams to close deals faster, increase deal sizes, and improve win rates, making Conga CPQ a valuable asset for businesses that want to optimize their revenue processes.

Conga CPQ is a cloud-based configure, price, quote (CPQ) software with features designed to help businesses automate the creation of sales quotes and contracts. It also makes it easy to manage products, pricing, and discounts.

Features include:

• Collaboration for complex quotes
• Product search and comparison
• Complete solution selling
• Asset-based ordering
• Guided selling
• Automated price optimization
• Subscription management

Team Collaboration for Complex Quotes: Conga CPQ’s team collaboration features, now enhanced with approval workflows, make it easy to manage complex quotes. This includes the ability to assign tasks, add notes, track progress, and facilitate necessary approvals, all in a cloud-based system accessible from anywhere.

Product search and comparison: Users can locate products through options like the ‘Browse Catalog’ list, a search bar, or by navigating through categories that align with predetermined entitlements. Product Comparison on the catalog page helps sellers evaluate product attributes and identify the products that most closely match their prospect’s requirements.

Complete solution selling: Sellers can add hardware products, software products, services, subscriptions, and various other types of products into a single quote or sales proposal. They can configure and sell entire mixed packages and bundles within a single order.

Asset-based ordering: Save time searching your product catalog for products, bundles, and line items your customers have previously purchased. Conga saves past configurations to eliminate friction and ensure the correct product is purchased every time.

Guided selling: Conga CPQ asks interactive questions designed to guide the seller/customer toward identifying the appropriate solution for their needs. Based on needs and configurations, the system recommends additional products and services. Product rules tell the system what can, can’t, and must be sold together.

Automated price optimization: Conga’s pricing engine establishes dimensional or formula-based pricing, which it dynamically implements based on quantity, customer rating, geographical region, and other factors. It also automates customizable pricing discounts and suggests discount rates.

Subscription management: Conga CPQ centralizes subscription and order management for recurring revenue businesses by allowing adjustments for renewals, terminations, and changes through any channel, while automatically generating opportunities and quotes upon renewal. It also offers an automated single-billing solution that combines one-time sales and subscription-based services.

There are many benefits to using Conga CPQ. A few of the most notable ones include:

• Greater accuracy and sales efficiency with product catalog search, guided selling, and automated document generation
• Faster quote generation and more accurate pricing with automated price optimization
• More revenue from upsells and cross-sells, thanks to guided selling workflows
• Complete quote-to-cash solution for diverse business models, including those with usage-based and subscription components
• Increased customer satisfaction and retention with personalized pricing and streamlined subscription management
• Improved visibility and control over sales and RevOps processes with real-time insights and reports
• Reduced administrative burden and human errors with automated approval workflows and document generation.

While there are several industries Conga serves, three of the most common are IT services, software (SaaS), and media/entertainment. Here’s how it caters to companies in those industries:

IT Services

Complex, multi-layered bundle configuration: IT services normally bundle various types of products and services — software licenses, hardware, and professional services. Conga CPQ enables users to include tangible goods, services, subscriptions, and usage-based offerings in a single catalog. And it supports nested options and attributes within bundles, meaning IT services providers can easily create personalized packages for customers.

Collaborative quoting: Complex IT service quotes often necessitate collaboration among sales, technical teams, and partners. With Peer-To-Peer collaboration in Conga CPQ, sales reps can initiate a collaboration request from users within the same business unit can work on a configuration. And with Multi-Tier collaboration, they can work together with those from different business units on a configuration.

Automated approval workflows: Since IT service quotes require several layers of approval (from the team members we’ve mentioned above), you need a quoting software that can automatically route requests to the right people. Conga CPQ enables you to define approval processes and set up tiered approvals based on deal size, type of product/service, components of a bundle, and several other factors.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

Complex SaaS quoting features: Conga features flexible options for co-terming, ramp deals, service level changes throughout the year, and usage-based components (e.g., number of users, storage space, API calls). With this level of flexibility and customization, SaaS providers can easily create winning SaaS quotes for any type of product, and bill for them without human intervention.

Subscription lifecycle management: The most important feature a SaaS CPQ software can have is subscription management. Conga lets users update subscriptions automatically — all changes are reflected accurately without manual effort. It auto-generates each customer’s bill and charges their account at the turn of the cycle, and it offers flexible subscription billing with schedules, automated renewals, revised billing, item swaps, and partial order termination.

Support for servitized SaaS businesses: Since Conga supports quoting with subscription-based, usage-based, and flat-rate line items, it’s easy to add services like implementation and support to your catalog without needing an entirely different billing system. It’s as simple as setting up the pricing model for services. From there, it’ll show on the quote which charges will be one-time and which are recurring.

Media and Entertainment

Ad inventory quoting and monetization: Conga CPQ allows media companies to manage and quote for complex advertising inventory, such as digital ad space, sponsored content, and programmatic ad packages. With dynamic pricing capabilities, sales teams can account for factors like audience size, seasonal demand, and ad placement tier, ensuring optimal revenue capture. This is particularly valuable for broadcasters or publishers managing both traditional and digital ad channels. For example, a media company could bundle TV ad slots with premium digital ads and offer custom pricing based on impressions or reach.

Customizable campaign bundling for agencies: Media agencies often need to bundle various services like video production, content distribution, and audience targeting. Conga CPQ enables the creation of highly customizable campaign bundles tailored to client needs. Guided selling tools ensure that the right services are selected and upsell opportunities (e.g., adding analytics packages) are maximized.

Omnichannel sales enablement: Media companies often operate across multiple sales channels, including direct sales, programmatic platforms, and partner networks. Conga CPQ provides consistent pricing and configuration rules across these channels, ensuring a unified approach to sales.

Conga CPQ offers customized pricing plans tailored to the specific needs of each business. While exact pricing details are not publicly listed, some sources indicate plans may start at around $35 per user per month. However, actual costs can vary based on factors such as the number of users, required features, and the complexity of your organization’s needs.

For an accurate quote that aligns with your business requirements, we recommend contacting Conga directly. Their sales representatives will work with you to understand your processes and craft a pricing plan that fits your budget, objectives, and usage levels.

There are several competitors to Conga CPQ, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. At the enterprise level, businesses need features like advanced pricing and configuration abilities, scalability, and team collaboration. Other important factors to consider when evaluating Conga alternatives include price, integrations, ease of use, and customer support.

Top Conga CPQ Alternatives

Salesforce CPQ

Salesforce CPQ streamlines and automates most of the processes from quote to contract, giving users more control while also allowing them to easily set up, price, quote, negotiate, communicate, and finalize transactions. It enables users to modify this data at any point, which makes it easy to keep track of the sales process and make changes as needed. Compared to Conga, it’s less feature-rich but serves a broader range of businesses, including small, mid-market, and large enterprises. And, although Conga is built on top of Salesforce, it is still a separate platform — Salesforce CPQ enables seamless integration with all your other Salesforce applications.

Oracle CPQ

Oracle CPQ makes it easy to configure new products by allowing users to drag and drop product options into a “cart.” It also offers the ability to quickly generate quotes and contracts. Oracle CPQ also improves compliance and risk management initiatives by tracking customer interactions and providing a complete audit trail. Its fully-automated contract management capabilities make it easy to keep track of all contract changes and approvals. Its cloud-based system also allows users to access the software from anywhere. For businesses that want an easy-to-implement solution and a frictionless setup, Oracle is a great choice.

SAP CPQ

SAP CPQ is a powerful tool designed to handle complex product configurations with a robust rules engine that ensures accurate quotes tailored to customer needs, minimizing errors and rework. Its real-time validation and pricing capabilities and guided selling tools allow sales teams to deliver precise quotes quickly, keeping them focused on closing deals. The intuitive interface is user-friendly for both sales reps and technical teams, making navigating and configuring complex offerings easy. Seamless integration with CRM, ERP, and other business systems eliminates data silos, reduces manual entry errors, and ensures consistent access to updated information. Additionally, advanced subscription management features enable businesses to manage complex pricing models, automate renewals, and track recurring revenue, maximizing profitability and efficiency.

DealHub CPQ

For B2B sales, DealHub CPQ is one of the best options. It’s one of the few systems that supports a complete quote-to-revenue sales cycle (through CPQ, CLM, DealRoom, and Billing). Seamless integration with CRM, ERP, and billing ensures connected data throughout customer touchpoints. This software is highly customizable, allowing for complex pricing models and unique business rules, like those common in SaaS and IT services. And, it automates renewals, upsells, and contract amendments for subscriptions. DealHub operates in a code-free environment, so you can implement it faster than most other platforms, without additional IT resources.

Zuora CPQ

Zuora CPQ is a subscription management platform tailored for businesses with recurring revenue models. It integrates billing, proposals, quotes, and revenue tracking into one platform, streamlining workflows and saving time. The solution simplifies subscription lifecycle management, enabling sales teams to handle upsells, renewals, and contract changes, while also offering tools to localize subscription plans for international markets. Zuora supports customer self-service through integrations with customer portals, empowering subscribers to manage their accounts independently. Additionally, it provides deep insights into metrics like customer lifetime value and average deal size through CRM integration, enabling data-driven decisions and stronger customer relationships.

Cloudsense CPQ

CloudSense CPQ offers a user-friendly solution with robust features tailored for technology, managed services, and telecommunications industries, making it an excellent alternative to Conga CPQ. It simplifies complex configurations, enabling quick and accurate pricing and quote generation while reducing sales cycle times. Seamlessly integrated with Salesforce, it ensures smooth data flow, eliminates manual entry, and provides a 360-degree view of client information for personalized service. Key features like QuickQuote streamline cost estimates and deal scoring helps sales teams prioritize high-potential opportunities. With its focus on user experience and ongoing development, CloudSense enhances efficiency and accelerates quote-to-revenue processes.

Out of 152 reviews, Conga CPQ has a rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars on Gartner Peer Insights. In their reviews, users note the software’s ability to automate and streamline the sales process, as well as its ease of use, scalability, and customer support. However, some users mention that the software can be expensive and that the learning curve can be steep.

The reviewers and customer demographics are as follows:

Reviewer’s Company Size

• <$50M: 6%
• $50M – $1B: 43%
• $1B – $10B: 28%
• $10B+: 22%
• Gov’t/PS/Ed: 1%

Reviewer’s Industry

• IT Services: 17%
• Healthcare and Biotech: 16%
• Software: 13%
• Manufacturing: 10%
• Other: 44%

Reviewer’s Deployment Region

• North America: 62%
• Asia/Pacific: 25%
• Europe, Middle East and Africa: 12%
• Latin America: 1%

Gartner Peer Insights affirms that Conga CPQ is feature-rich software that helps businesses automate and streamline their sales processes, as cited by the featured review on their site.

Conga CPQ is an excellent configure, price, quote tool that works best for businesses that are expanding their product lines and services, as well as companies with complex pricing structures. Its feature-rich CPQ automation software makes it simple for businesses to generate sales quotes in as little time as possible. And since it works seamlessly with Salesforce tools and Conga’s CLM platform, each of its tools comes together to create a robust tech stack that gives businesses everything they need to succeed.

And for customers and clients, faster and easier quote and contract generation mean a better overall customer experience.

Rhonda Bavaro

Rhonda Bavaro excels in boosting SaaS companies’ growth through innovative content marketing, thriving in the dynamic sales tech industry amidst evolving technologies that drive revenue acceleration.

Conga CPQ Overview

• 1Why this product is good
• 2Product Details
• 3What are the advantages of using CPQ?
• 4What industries are CPQ solutions best suited for?
• 5Prices
• 6Is there anyone else out there?
• 7Valuable Insight From Real Customers
• 8FAQs
• 9Summary